EF0 tornado, Ponemah to Saum, Minnesota, July 11, 2018

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF0

Date

July 11, 2018

Touchdown

9:12 PM CDT (02:12 UTC)

Lifted

9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.8 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Beltrami County

Touchdown point

48.020, -94.980

Lift-off point

48.030, -94.945

Record number

1807112012-01

A cold front moved into the northwest quarter of Minnesota during the evening of the 11th into the early morning hours of the 12th. Ahead of this cold front, temperatures over the northwest quarter of Minnesota during the early evening of the 11th ranged well into the 80s, with dew points in the middle 70s, so it was very warm and muggy. Thunderstorms broke out along the front, producing funnel clouds, tornadoes, large hail, and damaging wind gusts.

Reports of this tornado, along with video, were posted to social media. The tornado touched down just off the shore, over Lower Red Lake. It moved on shore roughly two miles west of Ponemah and continued to track to the east-northeast, for another mile or so, before dissipating. Large poplar and ash tree limbs were broken down along this path. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph.

This tornado touched down and tracked along and across the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) 25 road for about two miles, to near the south shore of the Lower Red Lake. Trees were torn up quite violently and debris was spread across nearly a mile of BIA25. Peak winds were estimated at 100 mph.

Reports of this tornado, along with video, were posted to social media, showing contact and an eastward track beginning over open water on Lower Red Lake. The tornado tracked onshore about four miles north-northwest of Battle River, and continued on an intermittent east-northeast track for nearly five miles, crossing Beltrami County 23 about four miles north of Saum. Large poplar and pine trees were snapped or uprooted along the damage path. Peak winds were estimated at 100 mph.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:52 UTC and running to 05:30 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:49 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 185 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:12 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.